Thursday, March 2, 2000

Keith Alvey, Executive Director of the Green Bay Chapter of the
Red Cross, came to the February 10 meeting of the Green Bay Mike and Key
Club. His presentation was first on the agenda.

[Background: In the Spring of 1992, the previous director of the
Red Cross
gave the Green Bay Mike and Key Club an ultimatum of unrealistic
Red Cross training and then gave the club two days to move the club radio station out of the Red Cross Building or lose whatever was left behind. In
two days, a crane was brought in to remove the tower. Several members still
with the club went above the call of duty and made the move. St. Norbert's
College was gracious and enthusiastic about providing the club with a
home and a roof to install a repeater and phone lines. [What follows is a transcript of the February Meeting tape used
for minutes. I connected a couple of separated mentions of the same subject
together with minimal paraphrasing. Mr. Alvey has seen this transcript and did
not have any post presentation input. - P.L.]

"On behalf of the Red Cross, I would like to apologize to
you for the actions of the past director. I am sorry that happened.What he
was trying to achieve was not part of the national agreement of the American
Red Cross and ARRL....I will also say that my predecessor's approach was not
typical of the Red Cross. It was not what our state organization advocates,
it was not what our national organization advocates, it is not what my Board
of Directors advocates. That was an anomaly. The other thing that I
would want to do is put a written statement of understanding in so that
anyone would know what we are going to provide. I know you have been burned before....I apologize for not getting here sooner.

"I have been beat up on it before [the club being kicked out
of the Red Cross Building]. I also take responsibility for the organizations
approach. The past director was a representative of the organization and
the people are ticked off about it, and I understand that. But what I want
to do is start moving forward from this point and make sure there is a
written understanding between us of what is expected from both sides and
get past
this. I want to move forward. I will do everything while I am
here to make sure, even after I leave, to make sure you don't get burned
again. That's all I can do. This is a starting point.

"There is an agreement between the National Red Cross and
the National ARRL as well as ARES and RACES in order to facilitate disaster
communication. A few years back as the result of Hurricane Andrew, some amateur radio operators were acting as Red Cross Volunteers and they were being
perceived as the wrong thing. That is not what I want. Whenever the
disaster strikes, whenever the Fox River goes out of its banks, whenever Bellevue goes under water, and it will happen again because half of Green Bay is in a
flood zone, when this does happen and it will happen, everyone is going
to pick up their cell phone. So, our backup communications are going to be shot too. We are going to need you to help us with communications.

"I am not looking for damage assessment workers or family
service workers, I've got those. What we need is effective emergency radio
communications skills that you can provide.

"The Red Cross mission is to take care of the families. We
don't get in there to fight fires, we don't sandbag, we don't build flood
walls. Which means we take of their food, clothing, and shelter, the basic
essentials. We
make sure they have a dry clean place to stay. We make sure they
have clothes. We make sure their medical needs are taken care of -
Dentures, optical needs, things like that. We take care of their
psychological needs
by bringing in trained counselors to work with the families. We
also don't go away. After the disaster, we transition in the chapter to
continue to work with the families as long as needed.

"I was a little nervous walking in her tonight past the big
hammer. I would
like to see a new relationship. I would like to work together. I
want to see amateur radio capabilities at the Green Bay Red Cross Chapter.
There will be those capabilities. I would like to see you be involved with
that.

"My goal is to see one of our rooms in the basement, which
is next to the
power room, set up as an operator station, so in the event of a
disaster, someone can come in, plug in a radio and help us with emergency communications. I would like to see a complete array of antennas.
What I want to see is the antennas up and wires run and in the event of
an emergency, someone could come in a plug in an extra radio. I
might be mistaken but I have never met an amateur radio operator who
didn't have an extra radio [laughter in the room]. I might be mistaken, I don't
mean extra, I mean someone could have another essential radio [more
laughter].

"I want to work with you because I know in a disaster, we
are going to need you."

"What I am looking for is amateur radio operators. If I want
assessment volunteers, I'll run people through a training class. What I will
do is ask that the radio operators go through an orientation so they can
recognize disaster relief operations and not get confused in the chaos. But
I don't want radio operators to be something they don't want to be. Your
love and your passion is obviously amateur radios or you wouldn't be here.
I will provide the club with copies of the national agreement between
the American Red Cross and ARRL. [Done, these are available and will be at the
March meeting].

"I can and will work with other amateur radio operators in
ARES and RACES but their mission is different. They work for the County Office
of Emergency Management. Our mission is different.

"Down the road, I would like to see some fund raising to set
up a backup repeater.

"What I eventually would like to see is capability -
2-meter, 10-meter, packet, the whole works. What I would like to be able to do is
contact Washington, D.C." Alvey pledged to present a written
proposal for our club's general membership (see following letter).

Keith Summers, President, Mike and Key Club 2/20/2000

Keith:
Sorry for the delay in getting this to you. We are sending
someone to WV today for the recent floods and I had to get the paperwork in
line. Anyway as I said, I appreciated the chance to speak with the club and
look forward to rebuilding a partnership between the American Red Cross and
the Green Bay Mike and Key Club. The American Red Cross has long realized the
importance of communications on a disaster relief operation and I know that
without Amateur Radio Operators, this is very difficult.

I have outlined a time line
below for the club, this is based on my own priorities and I look
forward to any feedback you may be able to provide.

EARLY APRIL - Have an established site with the Red Cross Facility for the Operators to Set up shop
in the event of a disaster. Have a written Statement of
Understanding in place for Relief Operations
OVER THE SUMMER - Conduct a orientation of "how Red Cross works in a Disaster" - Optional, but would help
operators in understanding how Red Cross Works. This is not Mandatory, but
recommended.
BY THE END OF SUMMER - Have antenna and hookups set in place on a
permanent basis.
BY THE END OF THE YEAR - Have a Radio Room designated and operational within Red Cross Facilities for use by amateur Radio
Operators.

I feel that it is time to move forward and together we can make a
difference that is bigger than either of us could accomplish alone.
I look forward to the opportunity to work with you in the
"near" future.

Friday, January 7, 2000

In Service For Y2K
Several members showed up along with many area hams at the second
gathering
of the Brown County Emergency Management/Wisconsin Public
Service/Ham radio
operator meeting at the WPS building Wednesday evening, December
15, 1999.

This was the last meeting before the scheduled 10 pm check-in on
New Years
Eve on designated area repeaters.
Area hams will be setting up and net operating from area
hospitals, public
safety buildings, police departments, utility buildings, and fire
departments throughout Brown County.

Both Brown County and WPS officials thanked and expressed
appreciation for
hams participating.

Officials also gave assurance they had no
information
indicating widespread failure of systems in their control. All
parties were
enthusiastic to interact with each other in the spirit of
readiness.

Governor Tommy Thompson will receive updates throughout the state
at least
twice an hour and more frequently if conditions merit. The area
ham net will
assist in providing information in the specified format required
for the
governor reports. The governor reports will contain all
information of every
accident occurrence so media throughout the state will receive
accurate
information about the events during that evening.

Andy Nemic KB9ALN, net control operator, addressed the group to
explain how
the net will function and answered questions about repeater
assignments.
Andy reminded everyone of net protocol and procedures. Any hams
wanting to
contribute to this effort should contact KB9ALN.

Thursday, January 6, 2000

A husband-and-wife team with 17 years of amateur radio experience between them were prepared Friday night to help get Allouez through any Y2K problems.
The village didn't have any problems, but the Public Safety Director said he appreciated the presence of Madeline and Dennis O'Connor.
"It's been nice to have them here, but I have every confidence that we're not going to have a problem."
The O'Connor's were happy to be available.
"They figured they could use our help," said Dennis O'Connor."If there were any problems, we'd be the backup communications."
That backup communication came in the form of a 20-watt ham radio transceiver that boasted a 50-mile range.
"We could talk to Suring for example or a little bit south of Manitowoc," Dennis O'Connor said.
Half an hour before the stroke of midnight, the atmosphere at the Allouez Fire Department was relaxed and jovial.
"I think I'm slowly but surely losing my crew to naps," Melchior joked. "I'll be gone by one o'clock because nothing's going to happen."
"But if it did happen, we were here," Madeline O'Connor said. Melchior was confident the village could have handled any problems if they had occurred. "We would have tried to communicate with people to stay calm."
None of that was necessary however, as evidenced by Dennis O'Connor's exclamation: "We made it."